The online ones attacks type Distributed denial-of-service or otherwise DDOS are becoming more common and many businesses have begun to realize that they need attack mitigation services to protect their websites and their services in general.
DDOS attacks are carried out by various as it is a very easy attack, which does not require special knowledge, despite the use of aletterof At times they have been used by companies to disrupt competition, by cybercriminals for extortion, and by hacktivists as a form of protest.
These cyber-attacks can lead to significant losses, especially if they take place against a website of a company based there for its business activities. However, the aggression attacks do not look at the type of business as they are only for a reason. Influence political or business decisions.
For example, a few years ago, Anonymous launched a massive DDOS attack against PayPal when the company decided to stop accepting donations for WikiLeaks. PayPal claimed it spent enough money to recover from the attack but to implement protection mechanisms. Of course the company did not change its decision due to the attack it received from the hacktivists.
Several major DDOS attacks started 2012 when the US government closed Megaupload. The websites of the US Department of Justice, the FBI, the White House, HADOPI, the RIAA, the MPAA, the anti-piracy federation of Belgium, and the Warner Music Group websites have stopped working.
Although these blows were one of the biggest DDOS attacks, no one moved in, since Megaupload never came back.
Shortly after the DDOS attacks on Megaupload, members of the Anonymous movement filed an online protest at the White House asking the Obama administration to make the cyber attacks a legitimate form of protest.
It is not something different from any "occupation" of protest. "Instead of a group of people standing outside a building and occupying the space, they have their computer and occupy a website to slow down its services for a short period of time," the activists said at the time.
However, DDOS attacks are still considered illegal. Many Anonymous and other activists still use it because it is difficult for the authorities to locate the attackers, but as history has shown, this particular way of protest does not directly affect any decisions.
Although there have been several attacks on government websites, it seems that most state actors are not really interested in whether their website remains offline for a few hours or more.
On the other hand, DDOS attacks often seem to be an effective way of raising public awareness. The media usually cover cyber-attacks, especially those aimed at the government or other high-profile websites. The fact is quite encouraging as mobilization is brought about through awareness.
For example, the recent OpKillingBay campaign, which was aimed at putting an end to the killing of dolphins in Japan, was quite successful in raising awareness. The dictators carried out DDOS attacks on a bunch of websites related to these activities in Japan, and while they did not cause any damage or change, people from all over the world expressed their support through social networks.
Of course, let us mention that the protest of the sofa does not seem to have helped anyone until today.
